GOLD DIGGERS NEED TO MIND THEIR MANNERS

Locals are skeptical, so the company that lands exploration rights for a great swath of land in northern Nova Scotia will need to bring well-honed community relations skills along with its rock experts.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expects to call for proposals in June, with the winner gaining exploration rights on almost 30,000 hectares that stretch west from Earltown in Colchester County almost to Wentworth in Cumberland.

The department’s geologists have done a mountain of preliminary work mapping the geology and testing samples across the hilly range. The most promising results came from Warwick Mountain, which lends its name to the entire package. There may be gold in the hills, but there’s years of exploratory work to do before anyone knows if there’s enough to mine.

Despite the tantalizing findings of DNR geologists, locals aren’t exactly lining up for the gold rush.

A group called Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SUNNS) is worried about exploration activity in the watershed that feeds the French River, which in turn delivers the water people drink in Tatamagouche. Concerns have also been raised about the effect of exploration on drilled wells.

DNR officials have met with the municipal council, the water commission and held an open house that disappointed SUNNS because it was an information session and didn’t offer them enough opportunity to voice their concerns.

Much of the land in what DNR calls the Warwick Mountain project is privately owned but, as Nova Scotians familiar with the Mineral Resources Act know, you may own the land but you don’t own the minerals buried there. The province issues exploration permits on private land all the time and, if required, it’s up to the exploration company to come to terms with the landowner. Disputes are resolved by the minister of natural resources.

The successful proponent will commit to two years of exploration with a price tag in the neighbourhood of $2 million. That exploration will likely involve aerial surveys and core samples in areas deemed most promising.

DNR officials understand, better than most, Novascotia’s long and rocky relationship with the mining sector, so a solid community relations program is a critical hurdle that proponents must clear to acquire the rights.

The successful proponent will be required to fund an independent environmental consultant hired by Colchester County to monitor any work on the watershed. The department also plans to include a community representative on the panel that selects the successful proponent.

There are two producing gold mines in Nova Scotia now, both on the Eastern Shore. The larger Moose River mine was 13 years in the making and employs about 250 people. The smaller underground mine near Sheet Harbour provides between 50 and 75 jobs.

Tension between mining and its economic benefits on one hand, and environmental and safety concerns on the other, is old news in Nova Scotia. The province has a ban on uranium mining and a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract gas trapped in shale.

The Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Pictou County, blew up in May 1992, killing all 26 miners on the job and extinguishing any hope premier Donald Cameron’s Tory government had of winning an election a year later.

Digby Neck residents used an environmental review to fight off a proposed basalt quarry at Whites Point but the company, Bilcon of New Jersey, successfully appealed to a NAFTA tribunal, setting off a legal battle that rages on.

Bilcon’s successful challenge hinged on the environmental review panel’s finding that the quarry would offend “core com- munity values.” The eventual determination of that case could haunt or help communities for decades to come.

Any gold mine in northern Nova Scotia is a distant uncertainty. Years of exploration and investigation are required to prove an economically viable gold deposit, but gold fever is incurable. More than 60 per cent of the $1.7 billion invested in mineral exploration in Canada every year is spent looking for gold.

Mines provide jobs, tax revenue and royalties that help pay for services people want. But if you’ve seen the falls and gorges in the Cobequid Hills, you understand why people are worried about the prospect of a mine of any kind.

Exploration is relatively unobtrusive. Taking core samples isn’t much different from drilling a well, except the core is refilled. But if a commercial gold deposit is uncovered, get ready for a fight and pick your side.